Jesse and Melissa's first encounter was a very brief introduction in July of 2016. It was Melissa's first time at Grace Church of the Bay Area and it was Jesse's last time, as he was moving away to Los Angeles later that week to start seminary. Throughout his four years in seminary Jesse would come back to visit occasionally during holidays. Despite a few awkward introductions by family over the next few years, Jesse forgot that Melissa existed.

Despite Jesse's amnesia, Melissa had not forgotten about Jesse. Between visits and quick interactions, Melissa started to pray for amnesia. But the Lord did not answer this prayer...

The silent years ended on Jesse's birthday June 29th, 2020. Melissa sent Jesse a Facebook message that would live in infamy. Well... that's a little dramatic. She sent him a happy birthday message, as faithful Facebook friends do. This message did however lead to conversation over the next several days, that ended with a phone call in which Jesse asked Melissa out. In July of 2020, while Jesse was still living in Los Angeles, they had their first Zoom date.

In God's providence, the day after Jesse asked Melissa out, he got a phone call from an old friend. His friend Chris told him about a position that was opening up at his church in San Jose. A couple weeks later Jesse flew out for his first visit and in September he accepted the position and moved back to the Bay.

Jesse and Melissa were dating in person and it was going great! In person dating did present a couple challenges, however. First, due to COVID-19 shutdowns they had a really hard time finding places to hang out, so they ended up eating lots of meals in the car. Second, Melissa had a dog. Jesse was notoriously not a dog person. But after meeting Riley, he quickly became a Riley person. With these challenges addressed, one thing remained. The ring.

It was just another Sunday afternoon and Jesse was "running late". He and Melissa were on their way to Novato to visit his family, with a planned pitstop, a hike at the Marin Headlands. Look at the picture above to see how the story ends. Spoiler alert, she said yes!